Abstract

The paper offers a preliminary treatment of the problems of profiling Apelles as a Marcionite of the late second century. It takes into consideration the available sources on one of the two works of Apelles, the context of which content can be partially reconstructed, namely the Συλλογισμοί. The tradition concerning this work is traced back to three different lines, the first going back to Rhodon’s treatise against the Marcionites, the second to Theophilus of Antioch’s work against Marcion and the third one to Origen’s Commentary on Genesis. Only Origen seems to have quoted the Συλλογισμοί explicitly and all the fragments we possess are transmitted by him, directly or via Ambrose’s treatise On Paradise.